Basic Factorio Guidebook

This guide provides brief and basic knowledge in Factorio for any newcomers.

The Engineer

Before getting start, here is some basic tips.

• Patience is golden.
  
  Logistics problems can be very frustration, but it is also very rewarding for solving them.
  
  
• Simplified and organized
  
  A "spaghetti" type of factory may not be completely bad, but a simple layout can makes logistic problems less of a pain.
  
  
• Keep an eye on Biters
  
  Biters are extremely hostile and territorial. They will attack your factory in group as soon as the pollution (from your factory) reaches their nest (Unless playing in peaceful mode)
  
  
• Engineering can be a game of guessing or calculating.
  
  Most logistic problems in the game can be solved by a simple solution (such as "adding more resources!") but sometime they don't, so by understanding ratio and basic math can help a lot.
  
  
• Any mistake can be deadly
  
  Misplaced the layout by one block can result in an entire factory block to be removed.
  The outpost running out of ammo can result in an entire production section to be shut down.
  Ran out of electricity can result in the base being overrun by hostile faunas.
  One mistake in this game is mostly resulted in something very bad, so be careful!

Resources

No factory can run without resources. And running out of them sometime can be extremely dangerous (like fuels) so watch out!

• The line between disorder and order lies in logistics
  
  Your factory will need a lot of raw material. It is your job to keep the supply coming.
  
  
• Depending on coal power too much is not ideal.
  
  Coals are essential to productivity and electricity. But depending too much on coal means a coal shortage can black out your factory. Having an additional source of electricity like solar or nuclear power can help.
  
  
• Raw woods, don't throw them away!
  
  Woods can be used as an emergency fuel. Storing them somewhere near a steam power plant and put them in the system when coals are running low.
  
  
• Use the rail network, you must.
  
  Rail system can deliver a lot of resources in quantity and less cost than an alternative (transport belts/robots). It is vital for engineer to learn how to set them up.

Electricity

Electricity is a life force of factory. Without it, your factory will be shut down and leaded to more problems down the line. There are three ways that electricity can be produced in game : steam power, solar power, and nuclear power, as shown below here.

Steam Power

• The effective ratio of steam power production is :
  
  

  Offshore pumps	Boilers	Steam engines	Electric mining drills
  1	20	40	≤18*

  
  Max electricity output : 36 MW

Solar Power

• The effective ratio of solar power production is :
  
  

  Solar panels	Accumulators
  100	84

  
  Max electricity output : 6 MW (4.2 MW Average)
  Max electricity store : 420 MJ*
  
  Note (*) : This power can run a factory with 42 MW/s consumption for 10 second.

Nuclear Power

• There is no solid ratio for nuclear power plant but here is the crucial part :
  
  

  Type	Given (per unit)	Consumed (per unit)	Bonus
  Nuclear Reactor	40 MW	1 / 200 sec	+40MW neighbor core
  Heat exchanger	~103 Steam/ sec	10 MW	-
  Steam turbine	5.82 MW	60 Steam / sec	-

  
  
• The basic nuclear layout is depending on the neighbor bonus of the reactor, which is :
  
  
  
  

  Reactor	Offshore pump	Heat exchanger	Steam turbine	Output
  0% (1 reactor)	1	4	7	~40 MW

  
  
  
  

  Reactor	Offshore pump	Heat exchanger	Steam turbine	Output
  100% (2 reactors)	2	16	28	~160 MW

  
  
  
  

  Reactor	Offshore pump	Heat exchanger	Steam turbine	Output
  200% (3 reactors)	3	28	48	~280 MW

  
  

  Miscellaneous

  • Electricity info can tell you how much electricity is needed.
    
    You can open an electricity info by clicking on any electric pole nearby or in a map. The first bar (satisfaction) need to be longer than the second bar (production) or your factory will run out of juice (electricity).
    
    
  • A table comparing steam / solar / nuclear power
    
    

    Comparison	Steam Power	Solar Power	Nuclear Power
    Power Production Per Unit	Moderate	Low	Extremely High
    Pollution	Extremely High	None	Low
    Source of power	Fuels	Daylight	Uranium Fuel Cell
    Technology Require	None	Solar Techs	Nuclear Techs
    Resource Investment	Moderate	High	Extremely High
    Space Require	Moderate	Extremely High	Low
    Risk of Faunas Attack	Extremely High	Nearly Zero	Nearly Zero
    Effect By	Fuel Shortage	Night Time	Uranium Shortage

    
    
  • Both steam and solar power are good combination.
    
    Steam power will keep your factory running at night and stop at day when solar power kicks in, which will save a lot of coal in the process.
    
    
  • Nuclear power will keep burning your nuclear power cell continually!
    
    Once you have nuclear power set up, it is advised to remove other sources of power to avoid wasting your nuclear fuel.

Transport Belts

Transport belts are one of the three method (and the most basic way) in the game to move stuffs around your factory automatically.

• DO NOT mix items on the same side
  
  Each transport belt have two side (left and right). It is NOT wise to put different items on the same side (unless there can be filtered by well-placed splitters) or else the contaminated belt will cause the line to be stuck and wasted time.
  
  
• Avoid a 'Spaghetti' transport belts
  
  Curvy main bus* and assembly line may not necessary be ineffective, but straight main bus and assembly line are much more easier to organize and expand.
  
  (*) Note : "Main bus" is an organized pack of transport belt that carry a large various kind of item like a tree trunk which can be broken into branches to feed the resources to assembly lines. it is the most common way to set up a base in Factorio.
  
  
• A common way to mixing items on the belts is showing in the picture below :
  
  

Inserter

Inserters are machines that can put material into assembly machines or others automatically. They will move items from its front (indicated with yellow line) to its back (indicated with yellow arrow) as long as they have electricity/fuels (and are programmed for filter inserters).

• There are 7 types of inserter, with different color and unique ability :
  
  

  Type	Featured	Speed
  Burner inserter	Run with coals / Required no electricity	Extremely slow
  (Normal) inserter	Cheap to produce and low power drain	Slow
  Long handed inserter	Two tiles range	Moderated
  Fast inserter	Faster than normal inserter	Fast
  Filter inserter	Can take specific items set by the engineer	Fast
  Stack inserter	Can take multiple items at once	Fast
  Filter stack inserter	Is Filter and Stack inserter combine	Fast

  
  
• Normal, Fast and Long handed inserter are essential. For instance,
  
  • Normal Inserters can provide material for assembling machines with long production time or low priority to lower electricity consumption.
    
    
  • Fast Inserters can provide material for assembling machines with short production time or high priority.
    
    
  • Long Hand Inserters can provide material for assembling machines from other belt, chests, machinery from 2 block away.
  
  
• Stack inseters are excelled at a train station
  
  They can pick up multiple items at once at high speed; very useful at load/unload cargo.
  
  
• Inserters will not put unrelated items to its target
  
  For example, they will not put items into an assembling machine that do not required such items (like copper ores into a gear assembly machine), or chests with a limited quota (set within the chest - shown as a red square) or anything but fuels into a fuel-powered machine.
  
  
• Inserter can interact with anything with item slots as shown in the table below :
  
  

  Furnaces	Assemble machined	Chemical plant	Lab	Gun turret
  Locomotive	Cargo wagon	Vehicles	Boiler	Burner mining drill
  Roboport	Centrifuge	Oil refinery	Rocket silo	Chests
  Buffer Chest	Active Chest	Passive Chest	Requester Chest	Storage Chest

Techs

Techs provide players with cool stuffs, better equipment, bonus, and advancement to win the game. However, one techs can only be researched at a time (multiple labs only speed the process up) so make it count.

Tech Priority

Priority	First	Second
Machines	Advanced Electronics (2) Automation (3) Electric Energy Acumulators Fluid Handling Logistics (3) Oil Processing Rocket Silo Solar Energy	Electric Energy Distribution (2) Fast Inserter Nuclear Power Stack Inserter
Crafting	Logistic Science Pack Chemical Science Pack Production Science Pack Utility Science Pack Advanced Material Processing (2) Advanced Oil Processing Battery Concrete Electric Engine Electronics Engine Explosives Flammables Low density structure Lubricant Plastics Robotics Rocket Control Unit Rocket Fuel Steel Processing Sulfur Processing	Circuit Network Cliff Explosive Coal liquefaction Kovarex Enrichment Landfill Laser Logistic System Military Science Pack Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Optics Space Science Pack Uranium Processing
Military	Military (4)	Atomic Bomb Defender Distractor Destroyer Explosive rocketry Flamethrower Rocketry Uranium Ammo
Modules	Modules Productivity Module (3) Speed Module (3)	Effectivity Module (3) Effect transmission
Transportation	Railway	(Others)
Bonus	N/A	(All Available)
Armor Modules	N/A	(All Available)
Augmentation	N/A	(All Available)
Defense	N/A	(All Available)

Note :

• First priority techs are required to build a rocket silo in Factorio.
  
• Second priority techs are improving engineer's quality of life and work.

Rail Transportation

Train systems can transport resources at long range in low cost and quantity. It is required lots of skill to set its layout properly and effectively.

• A brief train setup procedure is :
  

  • Build railways
    
    Connecting your base to your destination with rail. Either by robots (through SHIFT key) or manually place the rail.
    
    
  • Place a train stop
    
    Place train stop on top of the rail at your destination and your base (if didn't have one). The arrow of the train stop MUST match the way of an incoming train, or the train will not dock in.
    
    
  • Setup item loaders
    
    The inserters can be either Fast / Filter inserters or Stack / Stact Filter inserters like this :
    
    
    
    
  • Place Rail Chain / Rail signal on crosses and junctions
    
    Rail Chain signals (the blue one) will indicate where the train should stop and set the rail to be a one-way rail (indicated by its arrow).
    Rail Signals (the three light one) can be placed beside the Rail Chain signals to set the rail to be a two-way rail again.
    
    In case of junction :
    
    • Rail Chain signals' arrow must be pointing toward the crossing / junction.
      
    • Rail signals' arrow must be pointing away from the crossing / junction.
    
    
  • Place your locomotives and cargo wagons on the rail
    
    Set a schedule on your locomotives and (optional) set filters by clicking a middle mouse on a specific (empty) slot in the cargo.
    
    Additionally, two or more locomotives can be placed on each sides of cargo to make the train move back and forward in an automatic mode. An example is shown below here :
    
    
    
    Note : it is not advice to set up a train like this but using a double rail system instead.
    
    
  • Set off the train
    
    Switch train mode to "Automatic" (in the train GUI) to set off the train.

  
  
• Avoid sharing a rail between two or more trains
  
  Especially for an inexperienced engineer who never built a multiple-way railway before. Running an experiment on your rail first to prevent a potential disaster or use a double railway instead.

Vehicle

Vehicle can be researched and used for various role with its unique features.

• General Info of land vehicle:
  
  

  Type	Health	Armor	Lowest Top Speed	Inventory slots	Weapon
  Car	450	Light	87.6 km/h	80	Heavy machine gun
  Tank	2000	Medium	50.1 km/h	80	Cannon / Flamethrower / HMG
  Spidertron	3000	Heavy	~46 km/h	80 + 10x6 grid	Cannon / Flamethrower / HMG

  
  
• Weapons :
  
  

  Type	Primary	Secondary	Support
  Car	---	Mags	---
  Tank	Cannon shells	Mags	Flamethrower ammo
  Spitron	Rockets x 4 slots	---	---

  
  
• Tank is good at mid-game
  
  They can be used to crush faunas nests and providing player a additional protection and firepower. But be careful, tanks can get stuck and quickly surrounded by faunas quite easily.
  
  
• Car is the best vehicle to navigate around
  
  Knowing how to use car properly can help you expanding your base or exploring greatly.
  
  
• Vehicle are portable.
  
  You can put your vehicles in your inventory at anytime (by hold a RMB on it). But you can't use their extra inventory this way and have to refuel it every time you place them.
  
  
• Spidertrons can be remotely controlled.
  
  Spidertrons are expensive but can carry and use module equipment and can be ordered to moving around with a remote controller. Which making them a secondary engineer by practice (like using robot, firing laser, repairing, building, etc).

Robots

Robots can help player doing some chores or delivering goodies in a tight spot.

• How do Logistic chests work :
  
  

  Type	Receive Item From	Additional Taken / Recieve
  Storage Chest	Active Provider Chest	Engineers' Request / Trash Slots
  Requester Chest	Other Logistic Chests	Engineers' Trash Slots
  Buffer Chest	Other Logistic Chests, but blue	Engineers' Request / Trash Slots

  
  
• Passive Provider and Requester Chest are needed for a simple logistic network
  
  Request lists in Requester Chest can be set by cilck on the chest, click in a request slot in the middle of GUI (Graphical user interface), and select the item and number you want.
  
  
• Here is all info you should know about roboport :
  

  • Roboport's green area means the range of Construction robot. Brown area means the range of Construction and Logistic robot.
    
    
  • The brown area need to be connected in order to share robots and networks. The connected roboport will be shown with dash lines.
    
    
  • Construction robots (in Roboport) will take any available items in logistic chests (in its range) to build, repair, and reconstruction.
    
    
  • Logistic robots (in Roboport) will take items in logistic chests to another (in its range).
    
    See the table above to learn how item will be delivered for each chest.

  
  
• Here is all info about Personal Roboport :
  

  • Modular or Power Armors can be modified with a portable roboport to let Construction robots working from your inventory.
    
    
  • You can command your Construction robot (to build) by holding SHIFT key and places the building (in your cursor).
    
    
  • If there is not enough Construction robots in your inventory, A roboport (in range) nearby will sent their robots to complete your order (by using resources in its network).
    
    
  • Construction robots in engineer's inventory with active Personal roboport will exclusively take any items in engineer's inventory to operate.

Biters

You are not alone on this planet. Biters are hostile and will make your life miserable. You need to learn about your enemy as well as yourself, as the wise man once said, "Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories".

Enemy info

• Land Faunas
  
  

  Biter	Range (m)	Damage	Speed (km/h)	Health
  Small	Melee	7 (Physical)	43.2	15
  Medium	Melee	15 (Physical)	51.8	75
  Big	Melee	30 (Physical)	49.7	375
  Behemoth	Melee	90 (Physical)	64.8	3000
  Spitter	Range (m)	Damage	Speed (km/h)	Health
  Small	13	12 (Acid)	40	10
  Medium	14	24 (Acid)	35.6	50
  Big	15	36 (Acid)	32.4	200
  Behemoth	16	60 (Acid)	32.4	1500
  Worm	Range (m)	Damage	Speed (km/h)	Health
  Small	25	36 (Acid)	(Static)	200
  Medium	30	48 (Acid)	(Static)	400
  Big	38	72 (Acid)	(Static)	750
  Behemoth	48	96 (Acid)	(Static)	750

  
  
• Faunas Nest
  
  

  Type	Health
  Spawner	350

Enemy Tactic

• Biters and Spitter will swarm and overwhelm their enemy in possible quantity.
  
• Biter and Spitter will not give up on attack or defend until they died.
  
• The attack direction are random and not specific.
  
• the number and strength of faunas are depending on pollution level of the world
  
• Spitter and worms will predict and shoot their acid ahead of moving enemy.
  
• Only worms will not move out of faunas' nest and will protect them to the dead.

Weapon and Security System

There are a lot of choices to defend and attack in Factorio. You maybe provide with a pitiful firearm at first but as the tech go, you will get access to more firearms with high caliber and good defensive structures. Use them, plan them, adapt them as you must to survive on the planet and keep the factory grows.

• Personal Weapon
  
  

  Type of weapon	Type of ammo	Shooting speed	Tech
  Pistol	Mags	Fast (4 / sec)	[None]
  Submachine gun	Mags	Very Fast (10 / sec)	Military 1
  Shotgun	Shotgun shells	Slow (1 / sec)	Military 1
  Combat shotgun	Shotgun shells	Moderate (2 / sec)	Military 3
  Flamethrower	Flamethrower ammos	Rapid (60 / sec)	Flamethrower
  Rocket launcher	Rockets	Slow (1 / sec)	Rocketry

  
  
• Support Weapon
  
  

  Type of weapon	Base Damage	Effect	Tech
  Grenade	35 explosion	N/A	Military 2
  Cluster grenade	35 explosion	Extra grenades	Military 4
  Land mine	250 explosion	Stun large targets	Land mines
  Slowdown capsule	N/A	Slow enemy	Military 3
  Poison capsule	8 poison / sec	N/A	Military 3
  Defender drone	5 Physical	N/A	Defender
  Distractor drone	7.5 Laser	3 units / capsule	Distractor
  Destroyer drone	10 Electric	5 units / capsule	Destroyer

  
  
• Security Structure
  
  

  Building	Damage	Accuracy	Speed	Required
  Gun Turret	(Depend on Ammo)	Always hit	Fast (10/s)	Ammo
  Laser Turret	20 (Laser)	Always hit	Slow (1.5/s)	Electricity
  Flame Turret	3 (Fire) + Ignition	Low	Rapid (30/s)	Oil
  Artillery turret	500 (Area of Effect)	Hit on target	Slothful (0.3/s)	Artillery shell

  
  
• Defensive Structure
  
  

  Structure	Health	Usage	Required
  Stone wall	350	Barricade	Stone wall
  Gate	350	Entrance	Gate

Combat and Strategy

Fighting biters do not required much of planing since the player always have an upper hand of techs and biters have none but numbers. As long as the factory is well planned and well supplied, you will always win.

Armors / Modular Armors / Armor modules

• Armor
  
  

  Type	Grid Size	Tech	Investment
  Light armor	N/A	N/A	Low
  Heavy armor	N/A	Heavy armor	Fairly Low
  Modular armor	5x5	Modular armor	Moderate
  Power armor	7x7	Power armor	Slightly High
  Power armor MK2	10x10	Power armor 2	Extremely High

  
  
• Armor Modules
  
  Disclaimer :
  • Every Modules with MK2 REQUIRED their weaker one to craft.
    
  • Every Modules is stackable, EXCEPT Nightvision and Discharge Defense.
    
  • Every Modules REQUIRED their own tech to craft.
  
  

  Power Generator	Power output	Grid Taken
  Solar Panel	10 kW	1x1
  Fusion Reactor	750 kW	4x4
  Energy Storage	Power Capacity	Grid Taken
  Battery	20 MJ	1x2
  Battery MK2	100 MJ	1x2
  Energy Shield	Energy Usage	Grid Taken	Shield Points
  Energy Shield	24 kW	2x2	50
  Energy Shield MK2	36 kW	2x2	150
  Defense Device	Energy Usage	Grid Taken	Damage
  Laser Defense	600kW	2x2	75 (Range : 15)
  Discharge Defense	[All Available]	2x2	100 (AOE : 8)
  Equipment	Energy Usage	Grid Taken	Bonus
  Nightvision	10 kW	3x2	Nightvision
  Exoskeleton	200 kW	2x4	+ 30% Speed
  Belt immunity	100 kW	1x1	Immovable by Belt
  Portable Roboport	Capacity / Charging	Grid Taken	Max / Recharge	Working Area
  Roboport	35 MJ / 20 kW	2x2	10 robots / 2 ports	30x30 tiles
  Roboport MK2	35 MJ / 20 kW	2x2	25 robots / 4 ports	40x40 tiles

Strategy

• Tactic 1 : Maintain your logistic network
  
  You can NOT win over the faunas without a well-supplied and well-maintained base. Reduce all possibility of logistic meltdown (resources shortage / radar shutdown / power outage / worn down defensive line) to make sure the faunas will stand no change against your mighty machinery.
  
  
• Tactic 2 : Best equipment first
  
  There is no need to safe your best equipment for the later use. Use them as you must.
  
  
• Tactic 3 : Kill them with fire. Burn the xeno.
  
  Faunas are weak to fire attack. But be careful not to burn a forest down. A wildfire can spread very quickly if left unchecked.
  
  
• Tactic 4 : No Senseless Massacre
  
  More of fauna nests destroy, the stronger they become. Only destroy their nest if it's necessary (like the nests that are too close to your base/outpost or on needed resources).
  
  
• Tactic 5 : Always Fortified Your Base
  
  Especially around a power plant or a vital part of base / transportation.
  
  
• Tactic 6 : Turret Creep
  
  It is not wise to approach faunas nests in the early game. However, with a help of gun turrets; you can somewhat eradicate a small nest without much of injury.
  
  To do a turret creep,
  
  • Place turrets near a faunas nest.
    
  • Quickly loaded the turret by Shift-click with mags and let the turret do the job.
    
  • Get closer and repeated until all the nest is destroyed.
  
  
• Tactic 7 : Multiple layers walls
  
  Walls can be place double for a better defense line. This tactic was used once in an ancient time to effectively slow down and pull back enemy siege.

[Doc✪Hollywood]

Hey cool! Looking forward to it. Good work mate!

[Boaris]

After I finish my current run in Space DLC.

[Doc✪Hollywood]

when do you update your guide?

[Boaris]

The guide is currently outdated with the new update...

For oil, massing radars would be sufficed.

[Zercom-Qc]

ok one question a cant find oil some tips(a use the car and go around my base and cant find it)

[RAVENROOK]

Complicated? You could say that again. Do not think I will ever get the handle of this game. I love the depth to it, but there is so so much to learn, take in and calculate.

[lechkingofdead]

this is quite good. even as someone who has a bar bones of the game i like this

[Boaris]

I forgot to consider the nuclear cell production into the consideration, but anyway I updated it. :D

[Vorce Shard]

Good job for covering the game's broad scope in a readable way! The one part I would change is in section "Electricity" there is a table cell that says nuclear produces no pollution, it should be low or moderate. Technically it does create pollution because you have to mine and craft nuclear fuel for it, just not as much pollution as steam power.

[Boaris]

Oh, also assuming that there is no upgrade on electric mining drill nor module too, of course.